A fire has broken out at the Yaroslavnefteorgsintez refinery (Novo-Yaroslavl Oil Refinery) in Yaroslavl, part of the Slavneft oil company and one of the country’s largest producers of petroleum products.
Footage of the blaze on Wednesday morning, October 1, was published by the Telegram channel Astra and local outlet 76.ru.
As 76.ru notes, a giant column of smoke is rising in the area of Moskovsky Prospekt in Yaroslavl.
“At 6:28 a.m. local time, a report of a fire was received. Forces and equipment were dispatched according to the response schedule,” the outlet quoted the Emergencies Ministry as saying. A short time later, the Yaroslavl region branch of the ministry said 106 people and 36 units of equipment were working to extinguish the fire. No injuries were reported.
Yaroslavl region Governor Mikhail Evraev confirmed the fire at the refinery.
“Residents were worried this might have been the result of a hostile drone attack. But this is not related to that. No UAV attacks were recorded today. The fire is of a technological nature,” he said on Telegram.
Russia’s Defense Ministry did not report any possible Ukrainian attack in Yaroslavl region. The ministry, which continues to wage a full-scale war against Ukraine, said it shot down 20 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones overnight over the Belgorod and Rostov regions (eight each), Saratov (three) and Voronezh (one).
According to the Yaroslavnefteorgsintez website, the refinery’s average throughput is about 15 million tons per year.
The plant produces Euro-5 gasoline and diesel, aviation kerosene and jet fuel, a wide range of oils, bitumen, paraffin-wax products, aromatic hydrocarbons, liquefied gases and fuel oil, it says.
